6 ms·

> From the article it sounds like this is strictly an issue of it not being legal and regulated. This has nothing to do with regulation or prohibition. Remember

> From the article it sounds like this is strictly an issue of it not being legal and regulated. This has nothing to do with regulation or prohibition. Remember fake pentium chips, capacitors, transistors and tons of other electronic components? The simple fact is popular things will be counterfeited and vape cartridges are easy to counterfeit. Counterfeiting is also a problem in legal states too. Unless you are going to a legit shop and spending real money you are most likely getting fake garbage. When cannabis carts came around they were $75 here in NYC for a 1 gram and were tough to get. My first was a nice brass knuckles brand that hit like a mother fucker. Then there was a sudden flood and prices were dropping as low as $35 for a 1 gram and people were suspicious. Then it was even reported back then that counterfeiting was a big problem. When CA legalized a second wave of cartridges came in and we got more brands and again, higher prices around 50-60 for 1 gram. but again, rumors of fakes followed and so called trusted brands like kingpen were vulnerable. Me? I just smoke flower. Can't fake that. Though you can be sold low yield crap or laced stuff but honestly, I haven't heard of that crap in over two decades. Basically that's the kind of shit they pull on unsuspecting high school kids. The worst flower you get nowadays is generic mexican brick weed that smells like plastic wrap.

mtnGoat 7y ago
The same pesticides that end up in cartridges came from the flower/material that was used. Flower can also have molds, bugs and other things that a good test would show and people who just "trust" flower would then smoke. Sticking to flower wont keep you safe from anything but vitamin-e in the lungs. More than half the flower I see in NYC is in counterfeit CA/CO/OR/WA packaging, I do not trust its safety. Testing is the solution... all intake methods have their inherent risks.
- EpicEng 7y ago
  >More than half the flower I see in NYC is in counterfeit CA/CO/OR/WA packaging, I do not trust its safety That's fine, your choice and all... But tens (hundreds?) of millions of people have been smoking weed in this country for decades. How many cases of illness due to pesticides have there been? I can recall a few, but it's a tiny, tiny number.
  - monocasa 7y ago
    I mean, the cases of illness from vaping is a tiny number too.
    - EpicEng 7y ago
      Right, and we don't even know what the cause is yet. I have been vaping for about nine years now. If you look through my comment history you'll what side of this issue I'm on.
  - mtnGoat 7y ago
    not saying i wouldn't partake, i would just prefer something i can verify is safe.
    - EpicEng 7y ago
      Sure, I'm not trying to beat you over the head here, just saying that the odds of buying poison weed are astronomically low.
  - heavyset_go 7y ago
    The problem with pesticides isn't acute poisoning, but health effects from chronic exposure. No one is going to go to end up in the ER after smoking a joint, but if one's sources are consistently tainted, there might be an increase risk for cancer or other diseases later on.
    - EpicEng 7y ago
      Sure... but practically, how often does this happen?
      - heavyset_go 7y ago
        We don't know. "Was your ditch weed sprayed with paraquat?" isn't a question doctors ask their patients.
- zelon88 7y ago
  If you're buying pot off the street and it comes with a label; you're getting ripped off. Seriously the stuff has been popular since the 1960's. I think we can all agree that smoking "pure" pot, mold bugs and all, isn't this massive health risk that everyone needs to watch out for. The oldest stoners seem to be just as happy and healthy as the younger ones, if not more so. And that's just by buying unlabelled, untested plants grown by friends.
  - sarah180 7y ago
    Regularly inhaling burned plant material is harmful. Cannabis is not as dangerous as tobacco, but smoking is going to substantially increase your risk of lung disease and cancer. So naturally the most American thing to do right now is to ban systems that give people the drug delivery without the harmful smoke. Black market providers will definitely be held to better safety standards and offer more honest labeling so adults can make informed choices about the risks they want to take with their own bodies. (Of course when we're actually living in a bizarro world of moral panic where a third of Americans think that vaping is equally or more dangerous than smoking cigarettes, so it's hard to have too much faith in our public education.)
    - anigbrowl 7y ago
      Of course when we're actually living in a bizarro world of moral panic [...] Loading up a reasonable observation with tons of snark and broad political critique doesn't make for great conversation. I could just as easily point out that the technological innovation of vaping simply opens up a new market for unscrupulous capitalists to make a quick buck out of overselling the upside benefits while dumping the downside risks on the unwary.
    - senorjazz 7y ago
      > Cannabis is not as dangerous as tobacco Actually I thought it was the other way round. Just that you don't smoke as much cannabis as you do tobacco (i.e. a 20 a day every day without fail habit
  - mtnGoat 7y ago
- heavyset_go 7y ago
  Concerning flower, about 15 years ago in the UK, there was an issue where flower was sprinkled with glass beads[1] to give it the appearance of having a lot of trichomes. Legalization and regulation would solve this problem. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/12/drugsandalcohol.drugs https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/12/drugsandalco...
sixstringtheory 7y ago
You have this myopic view whereby you’re only considering the price. what is your health/life worth to you? Saving $30 a pop? I’ll happily spend that $30 to know what’s going into my lungs. First and foremost, lets get it regulated, _then_ let the market set its price. Sure there still may be counterfeits but at least discerning consumers will have a choice. You point to other areas where regulation could be better enforced as a reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater here, that doesn’t jibe. Even flower can be tainted, look at the paraquat fiasco (related to Mexican weed, coincidental to your last point, but still: regulation and testing of flower would be beneficial too): https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/19/archives/poisonous-fallout-from-the-war-on-marijuana-paraquat.html https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/19/archives/poisonous-fallou...
- Scoundreller 7y ago
  > First and foremost, lets get it regulated, _then_ let the market set its price. Sure there still may be counterfeits but at least discerning consumers will have a choice. Governments can remain irrational longer than you can breathe. I don’t have that kind of patience for someone else to get around to re-granting me Freedom.
  - awinder 7y ago
    Then you’re trading patience for the having your freedom-years statistically decreased. A fine decision for an independent actor but not the kind of thing strong societies are built on.
  - sixstringtheory 7y ago
    With government, you can vote and even run yourself to affect change. There’s no petitioning the black market!
0000011111 7y ago
A few thoughts on this. 1. In CA, all cannabis sold at the market must be tested by a lab for purity. This gives consumers quantifiable information on what they are putting into their bodies. 2. I am a big fan of tinctured Canibus. This is made by soaking cannabis flowers in high proof alcohol. This method helps kill many bacteria that could cause human harm. Fortunately, I live in a state where I can grow my own and know that my crop from growth through production is free of Hydrogen cyanide. Caterpillar poop has been a bit of an issue on a few of my plants this year though. 3. The issue here is a bad vape. Not cannabis in general. Cannabis is much like a tomato plant from an ecological perspective. If you're going to sell cannabis at market regulate it like you do tomatoes. If you can grow your own next to your tomatoes. Unless your heavy user chances are the harvest from 1-2 cannabis plants will last you a full year or more assuming yields of 1/2 1 -lbs per plant. Happy growing!
JackRabbitSlim 7y ago
>I just smoke flower. Can't fake that. "microgrit"... https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/12/drugsandalcohol.drugs https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/12/drugsandalco...

mtnGoat 7y ago

The same pesticides that end up in cartridges came from the flower/material that was used. Flower can also have molds, bugs and other things that a good test would show and people who just "trust" flower would then smoke. Sticking to flower wont keep you safe from anything but vitamin-e in the lungs. More than half the flower I see in NYC is in counterfeit CA/CO/OR/WA packaging, I do not trust its safety. Testing is the solution... all intake methods have their inherent risks.

EpicEng 7y ago
>More than half the flower I see in NYC is in counterfeit CA/CO/OR/WA packaging, I do not trust its safety That's fine, your choice and all... But tens (hundreds?) of millions of people have been smoking weed in this country for decades. How many cases of illness due to pesticides have there been? I can recall a few, but it's a tiny, tiny number.
- monocasa 7y ago
  I mean, the cases of illness from vaping is a tiny number too.
  - EpicEng 7y ago
    Right, and we don't even know what the cause is yet. I have been vaping for about nine years now. If you look through my comment history you'll what side of this issue I'm on.
- mtnGoat 7y ago
  not saying i wouldn't partake, i would just prefer something i can verify is safe.
  - EpicEng 7y ago
    Sure, I'm not trying to beat you over the head here, just saying that the odds of buying poison weed are astronomically low.
- heavyset_go 7y ago
  The problem with pesticides isn't acute poisoning, but health effects from chronic exposure. No one is going to go to end up in the ER after smoking a joint, but if one's sources are consistently tainted, there might be an increase risk for cancer or other diseases later on.
  - EpicEng 7y ago
    Sure... but practically, how often does this happen?
    - heavyset_go 7y ago
      We don't know. "Was your ditch weed sprayed with paraquat?" isn't a question doctors ask their patients.
zelon88 7y ago
If you're buying pot off the street and it comes with a label; you're getting ripped off. Seriously the stuff has been popular since the 1960's. I think we can all agree that smoking "pure" pot, mold bugs and all, isn't this massive health risk that everyone needs to watch out for. The oldest stoners seem to be just as happy and healthy as the younger ones, if not more so. And that's just by buying unlabelled, untested plants grown by friends.
- sarah180 7y ago
  Regularly inhaling burned plant material is harmful. Cannabis is not as dangerous as tobacco, but smoking is going to substantially increase your risk of lung disease and cancer. So naturally the most American thing to do right now is to ban systems that give people the drug delivery without the harmful smoke. Black market providers will definitely be held to better safety standards and offer more honest labeling so adults can make informed choices about the risks they want to take with their own bodies. (Of course when we're actually living in a bizarro world of moral panic where a third of Americans think that vaping is equally or more dangerous than smoking cigarettes, so it's hard to have too much faith in our public education.)
  - anigbrowl 7y ago
    Of course when we're actually living in a bizarro world of moral panic [...] Loading up a reasonable observation with tons of snark and broad political critique doesn't make for great conversation. I could just as easily point out that the technological innovation of vaping simply opens up a new market for unscrupulous capitalists to make a quick buck out of overselling the upside benefits while dumping the downside risks on the unwary.
  - senorjazz 7y ago
    > Cannabis is not as dangerous as tobacco Actually I thought it was the other way round. Just that you don't smoke as much cannabis as you do tobacco (i.e. a 20 a day every day without fail habit
- mtnGoat 7y ago
heavyset_go 7y ago
Concerning flower, about 15 years ago in the UK, there was an issue where flower was sprinkled with glass beads[1] to give it the appearance of having a lot of trichomes. Legalization and regulation would solve this problem. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/12/drugsandalcohol.drugs https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/12/drugsandalco...

sixstringtheory 7y ago

You have this myopic view whereby you’re only considering the price. what is your health/life worth to you? Saving $30 a pop? I’ll happily spend that $30 to know what’s going into my lungs. First and foremost, lets get it regulated, _then_ let the market set its price. Sure there still may be counterfeits but at least discerning consumers will have a choice. You point to other areas where regulation could be better enforced as a reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater here, that doesn’t jibe. Even flower can be tainted, look at the paraquat fiasco (related to Mexican weed, coincidental to your last point, but still: regulation and testing of flower would be beneficial too): https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/19/archives/poisonous-fallout-from-the-war-on-marijuana-paraquat.html https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/19/archives/poisonous-fallou...

Scoundreller 7y ago
> First and foremost, lets get it regulated, _then_ let the market set its price. Sure there still may be counterfeits but at least discerning consumers will have a choice. Governments can remain irrational longer than you can breathe. I don’t have that kind of patience for someone else to get around to re-granting me Freedom.
- awinder 7y ago
  Then you’re trading patience for the having your freedom-years statistically decreased. A fine decision for an independent actor but not the kind of thing strong societies are built on.
- sixstringtheory 7y ago
  With government, you can vote and even run yourself to affect change. There’s no petitioning the black market!

0000011111 7y ago

A few thoughts on this. 1. In CA, all cannabis sold at the market must be tested by a lab for purity. This gives consumers quantifiable information on what they are putting into their bodies. 2. I am a big fan of tinctured Canibus. This is made by soaking cannabis flowers in high proof alcohol. This method helps kill many bacteria that could cause human harm. Fortunately, I live in a state where I can grow my own and know that my crop from growth through production is free of Hydrogen cyanide. Caterpillar poop has been a bit of an issue on a few of my plants this year though. 3. The issue here is a bad vape. Not cannabis in general. Cannabis is much like a tomato plant from an ecological perspective. If you're going to sell cannabis at market regulate it like you do tomatoes. If you can grow your own next to your tomatoes. Unless your heavy user chances are the harvest from 1-2 cannabis plants will last you a full year or more assuming yields of 1/2 1 -lbs per plant. Happy growing!

JackRabbitSlim 7y ago

>I just smoke flower. Can't fake that. "microgrit"... https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/12/drugsandalcohol.drugs https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/12/drugsandalco...